{"id":7587,"date":"2017-07-18T01:05:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T01:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2719357&amp;preview_id=2719357"},"modified":"2017-07-18T01:05:57","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T01:05:57","slug":"massachusetts-top-court-says-workers-cant-be-fired-for-using-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/massachusetts-top-court-says-workers-cant-be-fired-for-using-medical-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts\u2019 top court says workers can\u2019t be fired for using medical marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/massachusetts-top-court-says-workers-cant-be-fired-for-using-medical-marijuana\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Jul 17, 2017, 4:47 pm \u2022 Updated: Jul 17, 2017, 7:02 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"author\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/ap\/\" rel=\"author\">The Associated Press<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>BOSTON \u2014 Massachusetts\u2019 highest court has ruled that a woman who says she was fired for using marijuana legally obtained to treat Crohn\u2019s Disease can sue her former employer.<\/p>\n<p>The state Supreme Judicial Court on Monday sent Christina Barbuto\u2019s case against Advantage Sales and Marketing back to Superior Court after it was dismissed in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Barbuto says company officials said her marijuana use wouldn\u2019t be a problem, but she was fired after her first day when she tested positive for marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>The California company argued the firing was justified because marijuana is illegal under federal law.<\/p>\n<p>Monday\u2019s ruling says employers can\u2019t enforce blanket anti-marijuana policies against workers whose doctors have recommended medical marijuana to treat their illnesses.<\/p>\n<p>An attorney for Advantage Sales and Marketing tells The Boston Globe they\u2019re \u201cconfident\u201d that the company acted lawfully.<\/p>\n<p>In Colorado, employee medical marijuana use also has gone before the courts. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2015\/06\/15\/colorado-drug-testing-laws-marijuana-use-coats-vs-dish-network\/36110\/\">In 2015, the state Supreme Court ruled<\/a> that an employer\u2019s zero-tolerance marijuana policy in adherence to federal law trumped state laws in the case of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/brandon-coats\/\">worker fired for off-duty use of medical marijuana<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><em>Cannabist staff contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>WATCH: 2015 Denver Post interview with Colorado medical marijuana patient Brandon Coats, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2015\/06\/15\/colorado-drug-testing-laws-marijuana-use-coats-vs-dish-network\/36110\/\">who sued his former employer Dish Network<\/a> after he was fired for testing positive for marijuana in a random drug test: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\">[embedded content]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Massachusetts&#8217; highest court has ruled that a woman who says she was fired for using marijuana legally obtained to treat Crohn&#8217;s Disease can sue her former employer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6812,6813,77,5667,9,6833,5019,1,3,61,1736,2158],"tags":[6817,6818,2655,5673,6835,5022,4726],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}